With all the choices to be made and all the people the various player characters can interact with over the seven-hour runtime of Road 96, it can be difficult to figure out exactly which path to take to rescue any of the major characters that can meet their demise in the final moments of the election day attack.
John, or Papa Bear as he likes to be called, is a genuinely wonderful character who has a dark past with the Black Brigades, a warm protective role with Alex, and a burgeoning romance with Fanny. However, if you don’t make the right choices in multiple chapters, he can meet a grisly end come the day of the election. Here is how you can save him from this fate.
Updated on January 29, 2025 by Emily Stander: With the release of Road 96 on Xbox Game Pass, this guide needed a bit of a refresher and some extra details on how you can make sure John survives.
Warning: Major spoilers for Road 96 lie ahead!
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How to Save John
The first important choice you’ll make in the mission to save John is to ensure that you encourage change through voting. Throughout Road 96, you’ll have multiple chances to choose dialogue which influences the ending of the game. Either you can choose to stay away from events, incite a violent revolution against Tyrak, or voice your support of voting for Florres. Generally, the best option is the latter, as this leads to the best ending.
You can also take a chance and vandalize Tyrak’s election posters to further advance your chances of getting the election ending. Just be sure no one can see you while you do this, though, as you can get into trouble if you’re caught.
The “ignore” and “revolution” endings both result in John’s death at the hands of Fanny. Only the (relatively) peaceful election ending sees John make it through. Influencing John as the game progresses towards peace, especially turning the Black Brigades towards peace if the option arises, is the best way to ensure his survival or at least a chance of it.
The second important thing to ensure during your playthrough is influencing Alex positively. For John’s survival, it is essential that Alex does not build the bomb; otherwise, Fanny will end up shooting him even if you get the election ending. It’s also possible that Alex dies in this scenario, but you can make sure that the young teen doesn’t meet a bad ending.
How to Save Alex
To save Alex and therefore save John, it’s imperative to make sure he doesn’t build the bomb for the Black Brigades. You’ll get the opportunity to talk him out of it in the ‘Too Young to Die’ chapter, where you meet John shouting angrily at someone over the phone. Before you can talk to him, you’ll need to interact with other people around the gas station, and then you’ll get a prompt to listen in on John’s conversation.
When the cut scene is done playing, you can find him sitting on the bench near the shop. He’ll offer you some food, and after a bit of conversation, he’ll also offer his truck so you can take a nap. Once you’ve woken up, you’ll find him sitting dejectedly in his truck and facing his CB Radio. John will explain that Alex has been contracted to build a bomb for the Black Brigades, and he doesn’t feel that it’s the right thing to do. From here, it will be up to you to call Alex on the CB and convince him not to build the bomb.
How to Stop Alex From Building The Bomb
To stop Alex from building the bomb, you need to pick the right dialogue choices while chatting with him on the CB. If you fail at this point, then John will unfortunately not survive the end of Road 96, so it’s important to stop the young teen if you want to save John. Here are the correct dialogue choices (in order of how they’ll appear) to ensure Alex doesn’t build it:
- Uh… hello?
- Someone who knows John.
- Yes he is
- Can we talk a sec?
- Because John cares about you.
- Don’t hang up!
- Can’t you see that Robert’s using you?
- You have so much potential, Alex.
- John, tell him about his parents!
- Start with their names!
- It’s working! Keep going!
- But what about Robert?
Once the chat is over, Alex will resign to not building the bomb. This is confirmed in the ‘Short Circuit’ chapter, where you can find Alex trying to deactivate a smaller bomb of his making – but only if you get this chapter after meeting John in Too Young to Die.
Despite convincing Alex not to build the bomb, The Black Brigades will inevitably make a bomb and bring it to the border on Election Day. There is no way to avoid this happening, as Robert was set on it from the beginning.
Reaching The End
If you have consistently chosen the “election” ending options throughout the game, you should reach the correct ending to save John. However, there are still several steps ahead as you will be captured and held until Election Day in any of the endings. After escaping, follow John and you will find Alex trying to defuse the bomb.
You will be prompted by John to use a code that could defuse the bomb, successfully stopping it from detonating. This method will prevent Fanny from shooting John when she arrives, and instead, accept him and stop Alex from running off. In this ending, the three characters come together as a new family while you choose whether to fight for freedom in Road 96 or flee and save yourself. If you want to save Zoe as well – and therefore all major characters who face an uncertain fate – you need to choose to join the fight.
- Released
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August 16, 2021
- Developer(s)
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DigixArt
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